World War II gave rise to a new boom in contemporary war novels. Unlike World War I novels, a European-dominated genre, World War II novels were produced in the greatest numbers by American writers, who made war in the air, on the sea, and in key theatres such as the Pacific Ocean and Asia integral to the war novel. Among the most successful American war novels were 's , 's , and Hemingway's , the latter a novel set in the .

Pat Barker’s triptych of World War I novels (which also includes The Eye in the Door and The Ghost Road) was inspired by her grandfather’s experiences in the trenches. Terrifyingly, the majority of the ‘action’ takes place not in the miserable fields of Europe, but rather a psychiatric hospital in Edinburgh where patients are supposedly cured of the trauma they witnessed before, incredibly, being sent back to the front line. An inflammatory set of novels that strike at the heart of the callous nature of war.

However, tThe Great War undeniably has a hold on British imaginations. William Boyd, author of first world war novel Waiting for Sunrise, has attempted to explain its enduring influence. Part of the reason is its literature, he argues. "In Britain, where almost a million servicemen died, it's images of the trenches that resonate on Remembrance Day. One reason for this is the resonance of the poetry. I can remember Wilfred Owen's terrifying Dulce et Decorum Est, about a mustard-gas attack, being read aloud in the classroom when I was 10 or 11. One boy actually ran outside, he was so upset."

One of the amazing things about World War II was the vast number of completely different stories that are buried within it. Pearl Harbor. The concentration camps. D-Day. North Africa...This book tells of the Warsaw Ghetto — the Jews of Poland trapped in a walled-off section of Warsaw — who fight (extremely effectively) for everything from food to freedom. If you've read any Uris, this is among his best. If you've read any Holocaust novels, this is among the most readable. And if you've read any World War II novels, this is among the most moving.